Rs1b corruption in MCL: Accused officers, commissioner suspended

LAHORE: The Punjab Local Government (LG) department has suspended the accused officers including an administrator and a commissioner after a probe launched into alleged Rs1 billion corruption in the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore (MCL), ARY News reported on Thursday.

The Punjab LG department suspended government officers of Grade 18, 19 and 20, as well as the accused employees following the corruption allegations.

The suspended officers include Commissioner Lahore, Administrator Baldia Lahore’s PSO Mian Waheeduz Zaman, MCL CO Ali Bukhari, former MO Finance, MO Finance Nadeem Tahir, Chief Metropolitan Corporation Faisalabad Zubair Wattoo and Grade 17 employee Sidra Afzal.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) launched a probe into alleged Rs1 billion corruption in the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore (MCL).

READ: ACE unearths Rs 1.4b corruption in LDA scandal

Earlier in the month, Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) arrested four officers of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) over corruption charges.

The ACE spokesperson said in a statement that four LDA officers have been arrested over corruption charges. The officers had allegedly received bribes for the illegal issuance of the completion certificate.

A case was lodged against the accused LDA officers after they were found guilty. The accused officers include Director Salman Mehfooz, Deputy Director Tayyab Ali, Assistant Director Inayatullah and clerk Ijaz Sattar.

The accused officers were associated with the LDA Town Planning Wing II and they allegedly received Rs3 million bribe to approve a plan which caused Rs86 million loss to the exchequer, the ACE spokesperson said.